A Sermon Pattern
(Acts 2:36-39)
Intro.
Herein is the first recorded sermon after the death burial and resurrection of our Lord. Surely we should learn from these words, what preaching the gospel means. I have seen men that talked about preaching the gospel and never deal with God’s word at all.
2 Tim 4:2, declares, “Preach the word;” the article “the” would say, it is a specific word. It is speaking about the Bible. The word preach here is means to herald, proclaim or publish, in others words deliver it to the people. The word is from the Greek “logos” means the expression of the topic. There is but one topic, that is Jesus Christ our Lord.
It is not the proclamation of my ideas, but the expounding of the word of God, to express the subject or the topic which is Christ Jesus. He is the central theme through out the Bible. Man can stand in the pulpit and tell you what they think about morality and they might take the newspaper and elaborate on various topics, delivering truth to you, but that is not preaching the gospel.
I. The Subject We Are To Preach: What was Peter’s subject? Although his sermon spanned many centuries historically, he had but one subject. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter went to great lengths to explain, by using O.T. passages that the Bible throughout spoke of Jesus Christ.
( Read vs. 16-23 Elab. Signs and wonders around Calvary. Many men and women today are still looking for these, they were done to show Jesus was the Anointed One of God. We are to preach Jesus from every part of the Bible. This is why Paul said preach the word or Logos, Jesus is the logos, He is the divine expression of God.
1. What Are We To Preach About Jesus:
Everything, His birth, His sinless life, His Vicarious death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, His creatorship, His Administration “by Him all things consist.” His Judgeship, His work as our Savior.
As Creator
John 1:3, All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Col 1:15-17, Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
We are to preach Him as Lord of the church.
Col 1:18, And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
He is to be preached as Prophet, Priest and King.
Heb 1:1-2, God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Heb 9:11, But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
Look at the emphasis Peter puts on the Kingship of Christ, he uses the prophecy of David.
Acts 2:30-31, Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
We are to preach His righteousness, His impeccableness, His attributes, Omniscience, Omnipotence, Omnipresence etc. We are to preach His death, physical and spiritual, look at verse 23, Acts 2:23, Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Elab on verse,
2. How Are We To Preach Him?: Certainly with the fervency and urgency that was exhibited by the Apostles. When Paul exhorted Timothy, he charged him, “be instant in season, out of season..; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” He did not say entertain, but he warns the day will come,
2 Tim 4:3-4
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
There is an urgency in preaching the gospel, it is the words of life unto life and death unto death. We are to preach Jesus as the One who was dead but now liveth and reigneth on high.
3. We Are To Preach Man In His depravity: (vs) 36; “Whom ye have crucified.” What was Peter saying, You are guilty! It is not open to discussion, the responsibility of Christ’s crucifixion is upon you. Peter had already told them they were guilty in v.23, there is no question in the minds of these men, they are charged with the brutal death of the Lord of Glory.
Were they guilty? They could have argued as men do, we did not drive those awful spikes in His hands and His feet. Let’s think a moment who these men were, look at verses, 5-11 read, they were probably not even in Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion, at least not all of them. These men had come from afar to the feast of Pentecost, from different countries, this being only 50 days after Calvary, most believe that Jews attended one or the other but few attended both.
But even those that were in Jerusalem, they might have argued, it was the Roman soldiers that crucified Him. Amazingly these men knew they were guilty, everyone who has come to know Christ as their Lord knows the guilt lies with us. He went to Calvary in my place and in your place. Our sins nailed Jesus to the cross.
Men must be shut up with their sins, we must see ourselves as guilty, that we might flee to Christ Jesus. We were condemned to die for our sins, and Jesus takes them upon Himself and places Himself as our substitute.
II. The Effects Of Gospel Preaching: (V. 37) “They were pricked in their heart.”
There was no invitation given, no song to be sung. The sermon itself was the invitation to those whom God had opened their hearts.
Peter was not begging men to come give their lives to Jesus, he did not say all you have to is accept Him. He preached the truth of God’s word and men were convicted of their sins, and they cried out, “What must we do?” They knew they had to do something, they said what must we do? Their hearts were open, they needed them filled.
The word of God convicts, not the actions of men. Too often people try to make someone feel guilty and call it conviction. Over zealous Evangelists will tell stories of how children worry their parents to get teenagers to remember how they have disobeyed mom or dad. They feel guilty, but they are not convicted.
We find no record of Peter using stories to make men feel guilty, he preached the truth and they knew they were guilty.
I was asked to use more stories, but God’s word is sufficient to arouse the hearts of men and women. Stories are usually false, taken from some book, such as Knights illustrations for preachers. To me that puts them in the category Paul was speaking of
2 Tim 4:3-4
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Churches today are suffering because 1000’s have been fooled into believing they have had a salvation experience, when in fact they were merely made to feel bad about some particular time in their life.
Hundreds have been baptized that have never repented before God of their sins. They have never known true conviction. They were never regenerated but they thought because of guilt feelings they were. Jesus spoke of them in Mt. 7,
I do not know who they are, and I thank God I do not.
1 Cor 2:4-5
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
